After airport workers threatened a strike and brought Trump to his knees last month, and as they threatened to do so again this coming Saturday, Pelosi has capitulated to his anti-immigrant hysteria and agreed to increases for immigration enforcement, including $7.6 billion for ICE ($512 million over FY2018) and $14.9 billion for CBP ($942 million over FY2018). $1.375 billion is allocated towards border barriers.

Good evening and thanks for tuning in. My name is John Bachtell. I’m the national chair of the Communist Party USA. Welcome to our response to the State of the Union address. Our country and the world are at a crossroads. Both humanity and nature face existential crises. We face a climate catastrophe and an escalating nuclear war danger.

The victory over the Trump administration lockout of Federal workers is a people’s triumph of collective action! Collective action creates the seeds for deeper and even more far reaching victories. While much credit has been given – deservedly – to the fortitude of Democratic legislators led by the much-maligned Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the decisive role of the public workers’ unions has not gotten the attention it deserves.

In November, the American people delivered the power of the purse to a Democratic majority outstanding in both its racial, national, and gender diversity and its commitment to progressive change. In retaliation, Trump and the Republican Party have shut down the federal government in an attempt to override the clear will of the people and coerce that Democratic majority into building a wall-shaped monument to racism, cruelty, and paranoia.

What are we to make of Tucker Carlson’s recent denunciation of free market fundamentalism in a diatribe against Mitt Romney? Has he gone from rallying red state voters to waving the red flag?

Defending the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, Carlson accurately points out how “for generations, Republicans have considered it their duty to make the world safe for banking, while simultaneously prosecuting ever more foreign wars.” He blasts conservatives and liberals for failing to understand that “culture and economics are inseparably intertwined.” He questions the racist myth of a “culture of poverty” in inner cities, pointing out that conservative-dominated rural America “looks a lot like Detroit.” He calls out our “mercenary” leaders and says, provocatively, “If you care about America, you ought to oppose the exploitation of Americans, whether it’s happening in the inner city or on Wall Street.” He even sneaks in a call for shifting the tax burden off the working class by raising taxes on the rich, and especially on capital gains.

DSA’s Democratic Socialist Labor Commission supports the federal workers affected by the government shutdown. Trump is trying to divide the working class as part of his racist agenda, but DSA members who are federal workers are speaking out and building solidarity. You can read their statement below for more on how the shutdown hurts working people, and how you can help stop it.

DSA’s Democratic Socialist Labor Commission (DSLC) stands in solidarity with the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) as they prepare to go on strike. DSA members who are UTLA rank and file members are fighting for the schools their kids deserve, and they need our support now more than ever. Below you can read an open letter from a UTLA teacher and DSA member on how you can support striking teachers today.

For years, pro-choice feminists equated the right to abortion with reproductive justice. But for scores of women, access to abortion is just one element of a multi-pronged battle. As socialists, we need to join with women of color in the fight for reproductive justice and move away from pro-choice single-issue organizing. The reproductive justice movement will help ground our work in the material conditions of women of color, women with disabilities, and working-class women whose needs are not reflected in the mainstream feminist agenda.